University of Twente Student Theses

The design of a new extension for Toon

This report describes the design process of the of a new extension for Toon, the smart
thermostat by Eneco. Since 2014 is has been possible to connect various smart devices to
Toon, this extends the functionalities that Toon can offer. For Eneco, it is important that
new extensions will be developed for Toon within the field of smart homes. The goal of this
bachelor assignment was to develop a new extension for Toon.
The project took place at Eneco’s headquarters in Rotterdam. It also simulated the Lean
Startup process; the designed concepts would be pitched for the stakeholders and the
chosen concept would be developed into a minimum viable product.
The design process started with analyzing which smart home products are currently found
on the market and identifying which of these products are currently in demand. Based on
this information it was determined which product functionalities could make the extension
interesting for both Toon and non-Toon consumers. Besides that, the customer profile of
the current Toon customers was also further analyzed. The Toon itself was also studied as a
product focusing on its technical details.
Based on the insights of the analysis phase, ideas were generated in the ideation phase.
Various methods were used to enhance the ideation process, examples of these methods
include TRIZ and Disruptive Images.
With the feedback from the stakeholders and the findings from the analysis phase, ideas were
selected to be taken to the next stage of the project; this resulted in the development of 4
concepts of new extensions for Toon. No concept was alike, and they showed new potential
areas for new extensions. The concepts were pitched for the stakeholders at Eneco; they
were all received very positively, and all of them were deemed interesting enough for further
advancement. In the end, the concept that could be developed in the least amount of time
was selected for further development.
The chosen concept uses data of the user, in order to help the user to save energy. To realize
this, three different functionalities were developed further. Due to the short timeframe
in which this assignment took place, it was not possible to develop it up to the point of a
minimum viable product. Instead, a user interface was designed for each of the functions
on a high level of fidelity, and a prototype was programmed that validated the concept on a
functional level. Both of these parts can be used for the further development of the concept.